The Washington Wizards have struggled early on this season, but there is no reason to stick a fork in them with 68 games to go.
The Washington Wizards have been regarded as one of most disappointing teams — if not the most — thus far in the 2016-17 season.
The backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal came into the season healthy. Although Wall had procedures on both knees in the summer, he had made enough progress to be ready early along in the preseason.
New head coach Scott Brooks had planned on implementing more of a defensive mentality that the Wizards had with former head coach Randy Wittman in some of the most successful seasons in franchise history. What Brooks didn’t realize prior to the season is that his bench rotation would be as bad as it is.
The Wizards started out 3-9 in their first 12 games, which caused the rumor mill to start turning. Should they tank? Should they look to move Wall? Can they offer a package of players to get Wall another superstar?
Question such as these always seem to surface when a team gets off to a slow start, but fans need to be reminded that the NBA season is 82 games. Sure, it’s ideal not to get off on the wrong foot, but there have been a countless number of occasions where a team that was eventually successful got off to a sluggish start. This happened as recently as 2014-15 when the Cleveland Cavaliers got off to a 19-20 start on their way to an eventual NBA Finals appearance.
Wiz of Awes
The Wizards have won their last two games and have had spurts where they’ve shown plenty of great signs.
The Wizards don’t have the roster to win a title, but making the postseason is certainly not out of the picture. They are currently 5-9 and trail the eighth-place Detroit Pistons (8-9) by 1.5 games.
Some type of trade shouldn’t be out of consideration especially if it’s one where they can bolster their bench with an efficient, veteran scorer. Ian Mahinmi has yet to make his debut as a Wizard this regular season ever since he underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus. He will certainly impact the defensive side of the ball along with rebounding, but he isn’t going to fix the scoring woes that have been evident.
We live in a world that wants instant gratification. This team has yet to click on all cylinders for multiple games and it’s ultimately what is putting them in the position they are currently in. They are 14 games into an 82-game season, there is no reason to bag the entire season.
With Wall, they have a superstar that has already carried this team a long way in the past. If Beal can continue to stay healthy throughout the season and post the type of numbers he has the past three games (30.0 points, 4.0 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game).
Otto Porter is also putting together a career year and finally fitting the mold as the perfect complementary player next to Wall and Beal that the majority of fans thought he could be.
A potential in-house change could be throwing a player such as Kelly Oubre Jr. in the starting lineup and move Porter to come off of the bench. Someone needs to supply this bench lineup with some energy and the way that Porter has played thus far, it seems he could help their case.
Brooks has tried just about everything he can with the rotation and nothing has worked. It’s going to come down to this lineup forming at least a little bit of chemistry so that the starters can get a breather at some point. If this can happen, which is a big if, the Wizards will find themselves in the thick of the playoff race.
Next: 2016-17 NBA Power Rankings: Week 5
It isn’t wrong to be worried at this point, but this Wizards team shouldn’t be exiled just yet.